Happiness fact 21: active lifestyle increases telomere length by 10%

They found that telomere length actually increased among the men who were assigned to undergo the lifestyle intervention, by an average of 10 percent. Meanwhile, telomere length decreased by an average of 3 percent among the men not assigned to a lifestyle intervention.

Telomeres are the “caps” that protect the ends of chromosomes, similar to how shoelaces have plastic caps to stop them from fraying.

Shorter telomeres have been linked in previous research with cell aging and increased risks of age-related diseases like cancer and dementia, as well as premature death.